On March 8, the Colorado House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee killed SB 46, the National Popular Vote Plan that had earlier passed the State Senate. Opponents brought in two law professors who testified against the plan. Supporters have their own law professors who support the plan, but had not realized that they might be needed. The vote was 10-1.
There are at least two election law cases filed in 2002 by minor parties or independent candidates that are still pending. One is the Alabama case filed by an independent candidate against Alabama’s 3% (of the last vote cast) petition. That has a hearing in the 11th circuit in Atlanta on March 20.
The other is the Arizona Libertarian Party’s case against a state law that forces the party to let independent voters vote in its primary. That case is still in U.S. District Court. Both sides have been waiting for over a year for the Judge to issue his opinion.
On February 26, the U.S. District Court in Oregon that is hearing the case against Oregon’s primary screen-out law gave permission for COFOE to file its amicus curiae brief. Normally attorneys on both sides freely give permission for anyone to file an amicus curiae brief, whether it is on their side or not. However, in this case, Oregon had refused to give permission to let COFOE file its amicus, so the judge had to decide whether to admit it.
COFOE is the Coalition for Free & Open Elections, which is closely associated with this web page. COFOE again thanks all the people who have contributed money to COFOE. Those contrubitions were used to pay for the amicus brief in this case. The case is Wasson v Bradbury, 06-cv-6205. “Primary screen-out” means a state law making it illegal for primary voters to sign a petition for an independent candidate. There is also a bill, SB 468, pending in the Oregon legislature, to repeal the primary screen-out.
On March 7, the National Popular Vote Plan bill failed to pass the Arkansas House Committee on State Agencies & Governmental Affairs. It was HB 1703, by Rep. Monty Davenport. It got 8 “yes” votes and 5 “no” votes. However, no bill can pass unless it gets 11 votes. The Committee has 15 Democrats and 5 Republicans. Seven Democrats voted “yes”, two voted “no”, and six abstained. Among the Republicans, one voted “yes”, three voted “no”, and one abstained.
The lawsuit filed in 2000 over a postal regulation that bars petitioning on internal post office sidewalks is the oldest pending lawsuit that affects minor party and independent candidates. Although there hasn’t been much news about the case in some time, it is alive and well. It is called Initiative & Referendum Institute v US Postal Service, and is in US District Court in Washington, DC. The judge has asked both sides to cooperate in producing additional evidence. Although much evidence has already been submitted, Judge Richard Roberts wants more.
